Tag: blessing (Page 1 of 2)

I’ve been away for quite some time!

June 19, 2017 / MSFriend / 2 Comments

Candlelight procession at Lourdes!

I’ve been away for quite some time. I miss writing but I feel uninspired. This, despite the fact that I have so much to talk about and share. Since I last wrote, I have traveled to Lourdes, France. I’ve shared in so many wonderful, miraculous and spiritual experiences. I’ve met some great people along the way. Before I left on my trip I was distracted by all the prep and anxiety of the trip. I was most stressed about being away from home for 6 days. Upon my return, I was distracted by the fact that in a few weeks I would be undergoing major surgery.

It’s funny how routine life can get. It’s even funnier how comfortable we become with the routine. If there’s anything this trip to Lourdes has taught me, it’s to STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. By so doing, you allow yourself the opportunity to receive the many graces and blessings God has in store for you.

So let me start at the beginning: I was given the opportunity to go on an all expense paid trip to Lourdes, France to travel as a caregiver to one of my friends who was applying for the trip through the Knights of the Order of Malta. The Knights organize this pilgrimage every year and sponsor several sick/disabled people, along with their caregivers, to experience the beauty, spirituality and healing of Lourdes, France.

At first, I was conflicted about being chosen to be a caregiver. Although I have been there on several occasions to help my friend with medical issues , I didn’t feel I was her “caregiver” as I understood that word to mean. So I told her I wasn’t interested in applying. At her insistence, I submitted the application and several months later got word that we had been approved to participate in the pilgrimage. I have to admit, I wasn’t the least bit excited. My routine was being challenged. In addition to my routine, I had to break the news to my husband who suffers from PTSD since 9/11. Ughhhhh! As time went on and after I received my passport, God gave me the grace to accept the gift and blessing. I actually started getting excited about it.

I’ll share photos and experiences in future posts. For now I’d like to fast forward to a month after my return home. The experience was one that neither words nor photos can aptly express. The magnitude of the “domain”, the presence of God and the Blessed Mother around us, the sense of community with fellow pilgrims from other distant lands was mind blowing.

What truly touched my soul was the fact that despite the state of the world, I feared nothing, I worried about nothing, I focused on nothing else but the faith I love so much. That, my friends, is a gift I can never ever repay! As a result of my experience at Lourdes, I have returned to my routine with a deeper devotion to the Blessed Mother, with a desire to maintain the palpability of God’s presence around me every day and a thirst to continue on pilgrimage! This would have never happened had I let my fear take control. FEAR – FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL! It’s not from God – let it go!

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us! St. Bernadette, pray for us!

Ave Maria!

O Come, O Come Emmanuel!

December 25, 2016 / MSFriend / 0 Comments

The Kneeling Santa

O Come, O Come Emmanuel! Merry Christmas everyone, may you experience the peace and joy that comes with knowing God is with us always. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Christmas season is not OVER, it’s just begun!

I recently came across this Nativity blessing – the moving words shine a whole new light on how I approach a manger scene. I hope it does the same for you.

Blessing before a Christmas Stable – Father Peter John Cameron, O.P.

Lord Jesus, as I kneel before your manger in adoration, let my first Christmas words be: thank you. Thank you, Gift of the Father, for coming to save me from my sins.

Without you I do not know even how to be human. The characteristics of your human body express the divine Person of God’s Son. And in that wondrous expression, Lord, you reveal me to myself. Thank you for that saving revelation in your sacred humanity. As the Christmas liturgy proclaims, “For through him the holy exchange that restores our life has shone forth today in splendor.” Thank you for coming as one like myself to save me from myself.

You come as a baby because babies are irresistible and adorable. You come as a baby because you want our first impression of God incarnate to be that of one who does not judge. How I long to be united with you in every way. May I never be attracted to the allurements and charms of the world. May I love you always, at every moment, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. May the tenderness, the dependency, and the mercy that you reveal in your infancy become the hallmarks of my life.

Newborn Savior, the very silence of your incarnation proclaims that the answer to the misery, the strife, and the meaninglessness of life cannot be found within us. You alone are the answer. As I kneel before you, eternal King, I surrender to you all my selfishness, self-indulgence, self-righteousness, and self-exaltation. Even as I adore you on this night of your birth, rid me of the nagging desire to be adored.

Word become flesh, you make your dwelling among us. Yet you do not live your life for yourself, but for us. And you enable us to live in you all that you yourself lived. Help me to embrace this truth with all my mind and heart. Come and live your life in me. Empty me of my willfulness, my petulance, my hardness, my cynicism, my contemptuousness. Fill me with your truth, your strength, your fortitude, your purity, your gentleness, your generosity, your wisdom, your heart, and your grace.

O Emmanuel, may the assurance of your unfailing Presence be for me the source of unending peace. May I never fear my weakness, my inadequacy, or my imperfection. Rather, as I gaze with faith, hope, and love upon your incarnate littleness, may I love my own littleness, for God is with us. Endow my life with the holy wonder that leads me ever more deeply into the Mystery of Redemption and the meaning of my vocation and destiny.

Longed-for Messiah, your servant Saint Leo the Great well wrote that in the very act of reverencing the birth of our Savior, we are also celebrating our own new birth. From this night on may my life be a dedicated life of faith marked by holy reliance, receptivity, and resoluteness. May I make of my life a total gift of self. May my humble worship of your Nativity manifest how much I seek the Father’s kingship and his way of holiness. The beauty of your holy face bears the promise that your Father will provide for us in all things. This Christmas I renew my trust in God’s goodness, compassion and providence. I long for the day when you will teach us to pray “Our Father.”

May your Presence, Prince of Peace, bless the world with peace, the poor with care and prosperity, the despairing with hope and confidence, the grieving with comfort and gladness, the oppressed with freedom and deliverance, the suffering with solace and relief. Loving Jesus, you are the only real joy of every human heart. I place my trust in you.

Oh, divine Fruit of Mary’s womb, may I love you in union with the holy Mother of God. May my life be filled with the obedience of Saint Joseph and the missionary fervor of the shepherds, so that the witness of my life may shine like the star that leads the Magi to your manger. I ask all this with great confidence in your holy name. Amen.